 
Vol.5 : Kirk R. Patterson (Temple University Japan Campus)
March 28, 2007
Nationwide land price turns up for first time in 16 years
Abe's disapproval exceeds support
Sanyo disarray reaches top
Firms fork out 50% to ease TOB fears
Times are sweet for the best grads
Expanded coverage: Fashion starts with the girl next door
making a go of it：成功を収めている
tough going：困難な状況
skepticism：疑念
BA：(=Bachelor of Arts) 文学士号
faculty：教職員
accreditation：認定
（ K: Kirk, R: Russell ）
| R : |
So, Temple University Japan: tell us a little bit about Temple - in America and the Japan aspect of it? |
| K : |
Right. Temple University is located in Philadelphia, it's a Pennsylvania State university, a very large University - about 34,000 students - makes it one of the largest universities in the US. It's unique, especially as a state university - it has a very strong commitment to international education. So there is a 40-year old campus in Rome, there is a communication program in London.
The first and I believe still, the only American Law School in Beijing, and operating around a dozen countries around the world. The biggest operation overseas is the Japan campus. Temple University Japan campus, TUJ, was f ounded 25 years ago. |
| K : |
The 25th anniversary is this year. We've had quite a few ups and downs, making a go of it, as any new market entrant in Japan they also find it tough going especially with a new concept.
We came here when Japan was booming and people said: 'Well, why do we need an American University - we have great Universities in Japan and we don't need an American University to come in.' There was a lot of skepticism, a lot of people did not want us to be successful in Japan. |
| R : |
And what was the answer to that, what does Temple offer in Japan that's unique? |
| K : |
Well we offer an English language education. We offer American style education. We offer a variety of programs, so if you look at TUJ now, having gone through various ups and downs, we now have a very strong array of programs. We have an undergraduate BA program with 11 majors.
We have an MBA program. We have a Master's of Law, we have a Master's of Ph.D in education, we have continued education, corporate education, English language education. In addition to Tokyo we have small operations in Osaka and Fukuoka. |
| K : |
In total we have 3000 students. |
| R : |
And what's the size of the faculty here? |
| K : |
We have about 30 full-time faculty and then quite a large number of part-time or adjunct faculty in both degree and the non-degree programs. |
| R : |
I believe Temple recently got accreditation, which allows some kind of behavior in Japan which wasn't possible before, I'm not quite sure. Could you explain that? |
| K : |
Right. For the first 23 years of our existence we operated completely outside of the Japanese higher education system, in fact the Ministry of Education for many years wanted us to leave and told us to leave. But we ignored their suggestions and stayed.
And the advantage of being outside the system is we could offer pure American education: American credits, American degrees, American standards, American semester system. A pure American education in Japan did not have to be adjusted to the Japanese system, and that's really to answer your question what makes us special. It's to provide a pure American education degree, credits everything. |
| R : |
So this was something that Japanese Government didn't want originally? |
| K : |
Didn't want, very strongly did not want. |
| K : |
But we found there was a market for it - we could attract students, both Japanese and Americans, and others who wanted this type of education. So we do provide an important service for the local community both Japanese and non Japanese.
About 2 years ago, after a lot of discussions, the Minister of Education decided that we weren't going anywhere - we are going to stay. |
| K : |
We won't leave, so we may as well figure out - so they went from being quite uncooperative to be - I would say quite flexible. They found a way to recognize us, they created a whole new system, got a foreign University of Japan - foreign University of Japan campus recognition system which gave us almost all the benefits of a Japanese University, allows us to sponsor student's visas. So we offer full degree programs here.
Our students can get train pass discounts, which they could not get before, and various other benefits. Our students, our graduates can apply to go to Japanese public University grad schools, which was not possible before. So in almost every respect we are treated at the same level as a Japanese University and given the same benefits. But we can continue to offer pure American education, which is great for us. |
solid financial footing：確固とした経済基盤
come in handy：思いがけず役に立つ
deficits：赤字
tax break：税控除
endowments：寄付
（ K: Kirk, R: Russell ）
| R : |
What would you say are the most important things that you've contributed to Temple? |
| K : |
I would say several things: one, certainly getting the government recognition was a big one. Probably the second was putting us on a solid financial footing, and this is where my business background came in handy. Temple University Japan for many years ran huge deficits, and financially we were not stable, not solid, which, of course is not good in and of itself. It also meant that we couldn't provide all the benefits and services to students that we would have liked to have done.
We couldn't provide our employees with the salary benefits we wanted to provide - it made it difficult for us to invest in the future. So in various ways, the weak financial situation was hurting our ability to offer the best education and take care of our people.
I brought in some basic good management practices that I had picked up over the years, and now we are solidly in the black. Now we are probably the - or one of the only universities in the world that is in the black with no tax breaks, no government support and no endowments. |
| R : |
What is the market for American education in Japan? I mean obviously there is one, and Temple has been very successful, it is in the black. Other universities have tried and failed to offer western education in Japan. Could you describe what is it, is Temple mostly Japanese students? What's the market like here for a university? |
| K : |
We have seven different programs and so the mix of students between Japanese and non-Japanese varies depending on the program. In total we are roughly 60% Japanese and 40% non-Japanese, although the non-Japanese portion is going up.
So I suspect it will be close to 50-50 soon, because we can sponsor student visas. So there is a clear need for our services and our programs, and those vary depending on the students.
So, 18 year olds: they value us because it is English language. For foreigners who want to be in Japan but don't want to learn Japanese, we're a great opportunity for them. For Japanese who want to have access to global careers, we're a great option for them.
Then you get into the graduate programs: these are all programs that can be done by working professionals, even weekend programs. And so they can pursue their educational ambitions without giving up their jobs. Continued education, similar non-degree, non-credit programs for career development.
So for the foreign community and the internationally minded Japanese, we serve a certain niche education market, you know. Its not likely, certainly not in my lifetime that we are going to compete with Keio or Todai or whatever. |
| R : |
How do you see the market developing in Japan for non-Japanese universities like Temple, and how would you like to see it develop? |
| K : |
Well, it's an interesting question. For foreign universities considering the Japanese market, they will have to look at what are the opportunities in Japan versus other countries around the world. I have been contacted by several overseas universities who ask me about setting up the university in Japan. I say, 'Well, if you're willing to put in 25 years to make a goal of it, come on in.' |
| R : |
And one last question is, being in Japan presumably you are aware of the Nikkei Weekly, is it something that you read on occasion? |
| K : |
I have been a reader of the Nikkei Weekly and before that the Japan Economic Journal for a long time. In fact, my Ph.D dissertation was a comparison of foreign news reporting in Nikkei and the Wall Street Journal. |
| R : |
Amazing. So the Nikkei has been part of your life here in Japan. |
| K : |
Yes, although that research was done in the Japanese version, not Nikkei Weekly. But for that I had to study Nikkei, interview people at Nikkei. And I have a great respect for Nikkei and the reporting style and I think it's a great newspaper, both the Japanese version and Nikkei Weekly which I still subscribe to. |
| R : |
So there is one way for potential students to meet the Dean of Temple University. I believe that's to go and see one of your gigs, is that right? |
| K : |
Yes, of course, they are always welcome to come see us at Temple University itself, but if people prefer to talk to me about Temple University in evenings, I play with the band called Little Sister, we're a 50's to 80's cover band, rock and roll dance music. We play regularly around Tokyo, we often play at a live house in Roppongi called Rock Factory and our next gig there is Friday, April 6 from 8 o'clock to 11 o'clock. |
| R : |
Okay, we will be there. |
 Glen S. Fukushima / President & CEO
Airbus Japan K.K. 
Vol.4 : Ian de Stains, OBE (The British Chamber of Commerce in Japan)
March 21, 2007
Spring wage talks rein in raises, focus on bonuses
Japan-Australia EPA to be litmus test
Powell sets the record straight
Customer data security under fire
China less keen on foreigner's funds
TSE to retain Nikki Cordial listing
Expanded coverage: How satisfied are you at work?
entrants：参加者
bilateral：二国間の
scale down：縮小する
brand transition：ブランドの変遷
（ I: Ian, R: Russell ）
| R : |
So how would you define the mission of the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan? |
| I : |
The mission is to strengthen the business ties between Britain and Japan, to promote and support the business interest of all of our members and actively to encourage new business entrants into the Japanese market as well as Japanese investment into the UK. That sums it up in a nutshell. |
| R : |
I see. So it is both ways, it is to promote British businesses doing business in Japan and vice-versa, Japanese business, doing business in Britain. |
| I : |
Yeah, that actually is a very recent addition to what we see as our mission and looking into the UK and that's been prompted really by changes in the British Government's position on the way it promotes trade and investment.
We did take a decision roughly 18 months ago that we should actually start being a little bit more aware of the fact that we might have a role to play the other way round, that there are Japanese people who might be able to come to us and we might be able to help in their understanding of the bilateral relationship basically. |
| R : |
And the Embassy is also involved in promoting investment. |
| I : |
Very much so. And of course, we work very closely with the Embassy. I mean, perhaps I should actually say a lot of people assume that we are somehow part of Government; we are not. We are a private body established in 1948 under a license from what was then MITI, now METI.
But it makes sense that we work closely with the embassy, so specifically we work very closely with the commercial department which is the obvious fit and, if you like, my role parallels that of the Director of Trade Promotions - but we are on the private side, they're on the Government side. |
| R : |
How would you describe the success or perhaps lack of it of British business in Japan? There's been a number of high profile companies that have had to pull out of Japan or scale down their operations, most recently Vodafone of course sold its operations here. |
| I : |
It has to be said in all fairness that British business generally does very well here. I suspect if you talk to most Japanese people, to most British people for that matter, and you say: What does Britain do in Japan, what it sells in Japan? - they will say Burberry raincoats, Scotch whiskey - we do, we sell those things and they are important things and they are nice things.
But the truth of the matter is that British business, Britain here sells a great deal more. Two-thirds of our exports to Japan are actually industrial. The most important of those being specialty chemicals, and what surprises most people is that the number two on the list is actually automobile related which you don't normally associate with Britain these days. |
| R : |
Parts and technology. |
| I : |
It's parts and technology and things of that sort and that is – the fact they can do that is a direct result of the Japanese investment in the auto industry in the UK.
So there's lots of things like that. Areas like, for example, broadcast technology, sound mixing boards and so on - we have a very high market share here. There is a lot of high-tech stuff going on in very niche markets.
The Vodafone case: again I think, looking at the way that Vodafone came into the market and the care with which they handled the takeover, well let's face it-it was a very, very conservative company in a very conservative sector. I think they handled it extremely well, I mean they took their time. I mean it was a good 12 to 14 months... |
| R : |
Right, there was a brand transition from J-Phone to Vodafone and they had both logos, and it seemed like a fairly sensitive approach... |
| R : |
...to Vodafone and they had both logos, and it seemed like a fairly sensitive approach. |
| I : |
Absolutely, and you know we had a very good presentation in the chamber from Bill Morrow who was the guy who set the whole thing up and managed to take over, and it looked on the surface of it like a real case book study in, you know, how to make it work.
Quite, well, what went wrong, you hear different stories, but I mean certainly I would hazard a guess and say that one of the major factors was that at some point Vodafone took its eye off the ball when it came to content and you and I know that the – I like the fact that my Vodafone is a G3 and I take it with me when I go back to the UK and it's in – keep the same number on the rest of it. And so I don't mind paying a bit more for a phone.
But the people that buy phones here and that make the industry turnover are young ladies particularly, who want the latest bells and whistles and the new colors and the new designs. They don't care about – they want to change their phone every 5 minutes. |
| R : |
Right. Probably it's a lifestyle statement. |
| I : |
Isn't it? Yeah. Exactly. And so, you know there came a point, I think where the Vodafone offering was not really keeping up with what people expected and once a name begins to slide like that, it's like any other, sort of brand. If the brand value is diminished at some point it's awfully hard to recover. |
emulate：見習う
feasibility study：実現可能性の調査
can actually cut it：実際に切り込んでいける
soul-searching：自己分析
stock swap：株式交換
deferring the tax：税金納付を延期する
（ I: Ian, R: Russell ）
| R : |
Right. Who would you point to as a success story in Japan, a British company or companies which sort of other companies could emulate? |
| I : |
Well, I think that, you look at Standard Chartered bank. I take that as an example, because banking is not usually an area where, particularly in Japan, where you can actually wave a flag, very much because of the difficulties of very low margins, and the way that the banking system works here.
But Standard Chartered has done some really remarkable things in terms of promoting corporate social responsibility here and in opening their Marunouchi branch which caters for a particular sector of the population. And the way that they have done that I think has been professional.
On the other hand, the other scale of things, there is a company called RS Components, which was not in Japan at all until 1997. But what they did was to take a very intelligent approach, and they said 'Well, first of all we would like to have somebody on our staff who knows Japan and knows Japanese but knows our company as well.'
And so they sent one of their staff members on the ETP, the European Training Program which means that, you know, that – people who take part in that do very intensive language training and then they spend two periods in two different Japanese companies looking at how Japanese companies work. |
| R : |
This is a European Union... |
| I : |
It's a European Union and Japanese government approach, ETP, it's called. And so for example, if you are in a job, company which is a high-tech company, you might actually spend some time in a dairy or an advertising agency... |
| I : |
So they put that staff member through that, and she spent a year basically doing that. They then said to her, 'Right, now you know the language, now you know a bit about the business, do a feasibility study and tell us whether we can actually cut it in Japan.'
Now bear in mind that you are talking here about sending a fairly senior staff member out of your operation into an expensive marketplace, you are paying her salary, you are paying her living expenses. You are putting an awful lot of commitment upfront and you don't actually know whether it is going to work yet... |
| R : |
Right, the feasibility study might come back negative. |
| I : |
She may have come back and said you know there is too much competition, we just don't have what it takes. But in fact that she identified the fact that there wasn't a competitor, there was nobody doing what they did.
They gave her the go-ahead to actually start it. They started out in the British Industry Center; they were actually our first tenant there. They started with two people, three people. Within 2 years they had moved into their own offices, they had warehousing and distribution facilities and 160 members of staff, and they are still going strong. |
| R : |
Fantastic. Tell us a little bit about the British Industry Center, what's that? |
| I : |
Well. The British Industry Center was something that we set up in 1997 after a long, long period of soul-searching and looking for a solution to an ever-recurring problem, which is why is it that there are so many companies that we know in the UK, who really could be making - taking good opportunity of what Japan offers, they are not here - why are they not here?
We created this facility where new-to-market companies, particularly, although existing companies could use it if they need to, could come in. The Nomura offer very subsidized rates on the rental of space, the City of Yokohama offers subsidies and grants and various other forms of assistance.
So, essentially a company can come in, say: 'We have decided we want to be in Japan...' and, for the first 2 years, 3 years, perhaps, they can have a very, very nice office in a very, very substantial center in Yokohama which is after after all only 30 minutes away from Central Tokyo with a lot of support and do it very, very cheaply. And we have put through something like 27 companies now. |
| R : |
That's great, that's a great facility to be able to offer. |
| R : |
What would you like to see change in the Japanese market? |
| I : |
Well, there are some very, very specific things which the EBC, the European Business Council is working to try to get changed. One of the big issues that we face at the moment is regulations concerning mergers and acquisitions which actually make it very, very difficult, for foreign firms to acquire Japanese firms, even if the Japanese firm wants to be acquired.
You know if, if we were doing an M&A in the UK we could do a stock swap, for example, no cash has to change hands. That's not easy to do here, it is – the regulations are such it makes it very, very difficult.
And if you are in a situation of spending cash to do something, there is no option of deferring the tax. So you will have to pay tax immediately. So if a Japanese company gets acquired and gets a cash payment it has to pay all of the tax right away. This works as a disincentive and it runs counter to the Japanese government's claim of wanting to encourage further FDI, foreign direct investment. |
| R : |
So, one last question, do you read the Nikkei Weekly? |
| I : |
I do, it's required reading as far as I am concerned along with the FT (Financial Times). The Nikkei is a good source of really basic information about what it's like to be doing business here. So whenever people come in, we recommend that they, even if they are on a short visit, pick up a copy and read it. You will get a sense of what is really happening in the Japanese business world as opposed to what the foreign media are saying about it. |
| R : |
Well that's great to hear. Thank you very much for your time. |
Kirk R. Patterson, Ph.D. / Dean
Temple University, Japan Campus
Vol.3 : Eric Feigenbaum (Expedia.co.jp)
March 14, 2007
Cross-border M&A wave coming ashore in Japan
Weak yen nice - but will it last?
In sync with global markets
Where have all the profits gone?
Pricey metal a steal along Japan's streets
Japan firms respond to green pressure
Expanded coverage: Old hands get into beauty business
Expanded coverage: Mental health becomes concern
skunkworks：社外秘密の新開発
IPO'd：株式公開した
trail blaze：(ある分野の)先駆者になる
Dynamic Packaging：航空券やホテル等を自由に組み合わせ、オンライン上で予約する旅行サービス
slew：大量
（ E: Eric, T: Terri ）
| T : |
What's the elevator speech and the longer version on Expedia? |
| E : |
Well the elevator speech is booking online is just the best way to travel. You control the whole experience. And we provide all the tools, and the ability, so that you can take control of the booking experience, and do everything, and fully experience the hotels in the comfort of your own home.
Expedia was one of the first, and for those of you who also remember, who have been on the Internet for a while, Expedia started as a part of Microsoft. It was one of the skunkworks projects. One of these engineers has an idea, 'Let's do travel'...and, we just celebrated our ten-year anniversary late last June.
It was spun out in 1999, it was bought by IAC - what is now IAC, but it was then known as USA Networks, back in 2001 and we then became independent again in 2005. We have done a lot of things to trail blaze travel, it's not just online travel anymore, it's booking travel. We have something called Dynamic Packaging. Now, it's become somewhat of a buzzword in Japan, but I'll be honest with your whole audience here - when I joined Expedia - I didn’t know what Dynamic Packaging was.
But, if you put it really simply, it's booking your airline ticket, and your hotel at the same time. Or, adding car, or several other features. And what we're able to do with that, and we were the pioneers of that back in 2000...
You're familiar with Microsoft Office...it's Word, it's PowerPoint, it's Excel. Now, if you bought those separately, it's more expensive than buying those together in Office. Well, that's essentially what we're doing.
We're offering something that, put together, is cheaper than the individual parts. Now what's dynamic about it is that we offer so much choice.
You can get packages in Japan, and almost any other country - 'Here's 'X' hotel and 'Y' destination for this price.’
But what if you could do it, and we can give you a whole slew of choices on hotels, and flights - by carrier, by hotel brand, by time, by schedule, and by price. And you can do it in a matter of seconds. |
offering：提供するもの
working feverishly：無我夢中で働く
on their toes：準備万端な
presence：存在感
honors thesis：（任意選択の）卒業論文
（ E: Eric, T: Terri ）
| T : |
You're just here now, in November - what do you feel the market is like? |
| E : |
Our current market, our current offering is international hotels. We do not offer, at the current time, air products or Dynamic Packaging. But we're working feverishly on it - that's a No. 1 priority. But, given what we have, we have plenty to go out with in the market.
So, what is the market in Japan?
Groups are a big part of the Japanese travel segment - package tours. The No. 1 source of information for traveling is through brochures. Travel is a big business - it's the second largest travel market in the world. It's a very competitive environment. And we understand that - and competition is good, because it keeps everybody on their toes.
The online market here is growing. The offline market, however, is very big. In Japan it's dominated by a lot of very large competitors, who I'm sure many of you know. A lot of them have a very strong presence offline. The market is still growing for international travel, in fact, last year, I believe, it was just north of 17.5 million international departures out of Japan, which is the second-highest ever, only exceeded by 2000, which was our good economy hayday-bubble days.
What we're seeing in terms of structure is a reorientation of where travel is ending up.
So here's a question for you - we have to make this fun and interesting for your viewers, we'll give them a couple of seconds to think about it.
What do you think is the No. 1 destination by country, outside of Japan? |
| T : |
Japanese people going to...? |
| T : |
My first guess would be America/Hawaii? |
| E : |
Hawaii's very strong, but...no. |
| E : |
Good guesses - France is actually the No. 1 country in terms of tourism in the world, so that's actually a very good guess...but you'd still be wrong. |
| T : |
Wait, wait, wait...come on listeners. Not..it couldn't be South Korea...? |
| E : |
That's another good guess - so you named the second and third largest countries... |
| T : |
But in this quiz that doesn't count. Okay, I give up. |
| E : |
So China is not only the #1 market, it's also growing very quickly. |
| T : |
You have a lot of experience in Japan - what is your experience with the Nikkei Weekly? |
| E : |
What is my experience with the Nikkei Weekly? Well, I actually have been reading the Nikkei Weekly before it was the Nikkei Weekly, when it was the Japan Economic Journal. I did my honors thesis in college on Japanese energy policy, right during the first Persian Gulf War, which had a huge impact on Japan.
In fact, I think during my research, it actually went from Japan Economic Journal to the Nikkei Weekly. And I had a very difficult time, because I was going to the library and saying 'Why can't I get the most recent Japan Economic Journal?' and then I finally found out it was the Nikkei Weekly...
Yes, it has been a part of my life. |
Ian de Stains, OBE DipArb, MCIArb
Executive Director
British Chamber of Commerce
Vol.2 : Brian Nelson (ValueCommerce)
March 7, 2007
Global money seeks new home after 'China shock'
TSE poised to delist Nikko Cordial
Would you like that delivered?
Panel maps out Japan's own NSC
Asia developing taste for Japanese style
Renewable energy under a cloud
Professional eye for the busy guy
Expanded coverage: Brit brings aliens to Yuzawa slopes
click fraud：クリック詐欺
affiliate websites：アフィリエイトサイト
EC site：ECサイト（広告主）
text advertising：テキスト広告
search engine results：サーチエンジン検索結果
banner advertising：バナー広告
initiatives：主導権
（ B: Brian, T: Terri ）
| T : |
Describe your business. |
| B : |
ValueCommerce, which I'm the CEO of, is Japan's #1 affiliate marketing business. Specifically in terms of market share, with the largest revenue in the affiliate marketing industry in Japan. And we've been able to maintain the position in the industry because we have very high quality. A lot of people in the internet industry have had the difficulty of working with things like click fraud, or working with expectations of internet advertising by industries...
And we've really been able to keep the lead market share by making sure that we always did a very good quality job. For instance, we have our individual staff looking at all the websites that register to be our customers, each and every day. Now, this is a large number. It's not like we're just adding one or two a day. We have now 375,000 affiliate websites. We have over 1,600 EC site customer sites... |
| T : |
And someone's looking at them every day? |
| B : |
We have people, when they register to join our company, that review all those companies. And we're the only ones in the industry that do that. This makes sure that we maintain very high quality. We turn back 20% of everyone who registers to try to be part of our network.
And we try to help them by telling them how they can improve, to come back and try again. And we do this because a lot of the large brand customers that we work with want to make sure that their brand is protected on the Internet. They don't want text advertising, search engine results, banner advertising showing up on website that are not of high quality, because that helps protect their brand.
I think that is one of the reasons why we have been able to obtain the No. 1 spot and maintain the No. 1 spot.
Of great importance is that we do our sales as a direct sales model.
|
| T : |
Can you explain a little to our listeners? |
| B : |
Yes, from the very beginning, from the nature of the management team that we have, and the salespeople and the training we've provided them, we go directly to large companies and work with their senior management on how they can build their initiatives, and how they can build their sales channels for the internet. It's a lot easier for us to get bigger budgets, because people trust us, because they work with us each and every week, on a person-to-person basis with our customers.
Whereas some companies in our industry work through resellers and agencies. And reseller/agency connections, can help you grow quickly, but you can find that you don't have the closeness of a relationship, when it comes to dealing with your large customers. So that's another reason, beyond just quality, just working with the large companies in a very close relationship, that's helped us maintain the No. 1 spot in the industry.
|
| T : |
You are giving back to the community in a way, by telling companies that can't quite meet your standards what they could do to do better. Do you have some success stories of people who've changed their models and been able to jump in there? |
| B : |
Absolutely. You're thinking of companies and people that are going to generate revenue. And by making their websites up to the level of compliance, and up to the level of quality that we require at ValueCommerce, it actually helps them to make more money.
And so from that standpoint, when we educate people to come back and provide a better website with the right kind of content that's acceptable for us, they actually realize in hindsight that that was great, because they make more money.
And we show those success results to them, and that's why they're motivated to want to make changes.
|
Web 2.0 (web services)：ウェブ2.0
P & L：損益
M & A：合併・買収
（ B: Brian, T: Terri ）
| T : |
You actually went into a description of the market, but can you get a little more in depth? |
| B : |
Sure. The affiliate marketing industry in Japan is still growing at about 30-40% a year. So, it's a very high growth industry. There's a lot of competition: there's about 50 different companies doing affiliate marketing in Japan. |
| B : |
Which is very similar to the trends you see in overseas markets – the United States and Europe and Asia. And being the No. 1 company, we find that a lot of companies try to mimic us - to copy the things we do, so it's always staying one step ahead.
For instance, last year we came out with the first fully automated product database API, which allows us to show products, millions of products from our EC-side customers, on the affiliate sites, in a way that makes it easier to make purchases. No longer does a consumer have to go to an affiliate website, and then click on an advertisement, and then go to the EC site. They can actually stay at the affiliate, and they the product description, they get the product link, they can go directly to the products, and that links to more purchases as well.
So they're making more money, they're feeling better about the way they can show products on their websites, and that's something that we have done first, before everyone. |
| T : |
Is that like a Web 2.0 thing you're using? |
| B : |
Yes, it is, it's very much a Web. 2.0 product. Web services, as it's referred to in Japan. In the Nikkei, in fact, in Japan, there was a large article written about how ValueCommerce is the leading company in doing Web 2.0 services. Thanks to Nikkei for that. |
| T : |
How would you like to see the market develop here, if you had your ideal situation? |
| B : |
For the industry that we're in or for the economy of Japan? |
| T : |
If you can do both that would be great. |
| B : |
First of all, the space that we're in, I think the leadership we've shown by providing high quality – I'd like to see that continue, and I'd like to see that continue throughout the whole industry. We've provided, again, leadership in that, where we started last year, along with 6 other affiliate marketing companies, a new affiliate marketing association, called JASK. Japan Affiliate Marketing (Services) Kyokai. Kyokai stands for organization.
From that standpoint, JASK is providing initiative where, we were on NHK last year and providing a new arena to make sure that people are compliant and giving good quality to the market.
That's the way I'd like to see the market continue to grow, because it will provide, actually, the base for the growth, because it provides for trust in the industry. And that is one thing that all industries must strive for as they're growing.
The second part, with Japan: you have a financial and corporate structure situation whereby companies still, when they acquire companies, they still need to write off something called 'good will'.
And in writing off good will, that puts Japanese corporations at a disadvantage to foreign companies. In that standpoint, I would like to see Japan change to allow for good will not to have to be written off in the same way, to make everybody more competitive on a P&L standpoint, and a balance sheet standpoint, in growing their industries through M&A from Japan.
But, you have in Japan a great, a wonderful thing, which is that a small piece of land, with a population that's large, but not the largest, you have what is a very large economy. And that allows for ValueCommerce and other companies a great opportunity to grow a local market, but also work out a launching pad to go overseas.
I think that's where, maybe, Japan is underestimated, and you hear a lot about the emergence of China now, and India, and of course those things are going to happen. But if you look at the economic numbers behind all of that, Japan is doing very well, with investment into both China and India. That comes from the basis of the strong economy that Japan has. So that's great for us, and great for the future of Japan. |
| T : |
Last question: your experience with the Nikkei Weekly... |
| B : |
Is absolutely excellent. I think that if you have to look at the resources that you have available to you in the limited time you have each day, specifically for someone like myself, who does read Japanese, but I read English much faster because that's my mother language, if you will. From that standpoint, having the information compiled in a way that I can get through it very quickly in English, is very useful to me.
So I find it to be one of my most helpful resources, and I've used the online version for the last five years as well. So I'm looking at the Nikkei online every day, I'm looking at the Nikkei Weekly on weekends, and I'm also looking at the Japanese version on a daily basis. So I find it to be one of my best resources. |
Eric Feigenbaum / Managing Director
Expedia Holdings, KK
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